Pointing to the failure of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, a measure to prohibit all testing of nuclear weapons that was defeated by Republicans in the Senate, Gore questioned whether Bush would distance himself from members of his party.
"Governor Bush joined with the isolationist, partisan Republican majority in Congress in opposing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty," Gore said. "He chose politics over principle."
Bush campaign officials lost no time in responding to Gore's attacks.
"The governor has not said that Russia and China should be enemies; in fact he has said that China is a competitor, and we should reach out to Russia," Bush foreign policy adviser Condoleezza Rice told The New York Times. "It is very much like the vice president to distort [Bush's] record."